Record Heat Along Arizona Border Results in Rising Migrant Deaths

By Dana Cruz First Posted: Dec 21, 2020 05:34 AM EST

(Photo : Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The border wall is seen on January 15, 2019 in Esperanza, Texas.

Authorities discovered the highest number migrant deaths in 10 years along the Arizona border following the hottest, driest summer faced by the state.

They said migrant deaths were recorded on mountains, deserts and valleys near the Mexico-Arizona border.

According to Fox News, recent border enforcement efforts in California and Texas drove people into the more difficult terrain to Arizona.

All the while, officials stepped up construction of a wall along the Arizona border, driving migrants into more dangerous areas that do not have access to food and water.

The Trump administration is still looking forward to more border wall constructions, mostly in Arizona, with 450 additional miles to be built by year's end.

The unprecedented amount of migrant deaths served as a reminder that the remote parts of the U.S. proved itself to be the deadliest, noted Toledo Blade.

"The wall has sent a lot of people to rough terrain in our area," said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada, comparing the migrants' drive to chickens who are led to canyons where they ultimately die.

At Least 200 Migrant Deaths Recorded in 2020

According Humane Borders and the Pima County Medical Examiner's Officers, there were at least 214 confirmed or suspected migrant deaths along the Arizona border from January to November of this year.

The organizations map human remain recoveries side-by-side.

Some bodies found in these areas were those of 19-year-old Cesar de la Cruz and Juan Lopez Valencia.

Heat exposure on an Arizona trail was seen as de la Cruz's cause of death during his trek up from southern Mexico in July. On the other hand, Valencia was found in August along a dry wash on Native American land, said a report from AZ Central.

The last time this amount of deaths happened in the Arizona border area was in 2010 where 224 remains were documented.

It's not yet clear if this year's number will exceed the 2010 data once December deaths are factored in.

Extreme Heat, Dry Weather Contributes to Rising Death Count

"There's no doubt in my mind that the high temperatures have had a lot to do with it," said Mike Kreyche of Humane Borders.

The opinion as echoed by Pima County Medical Examiner Dr. Greg Hess.

He said dry weather was one of the reasons this year's death count had been higher than normal.

Hess also added that even though most deaths in the area were only recovered skeleton, the deaths were still fairly recent.

In Phoenix, the average for high temperature ran near 110 degrees in July and 111 in August, the hottest summer in Arizona's history.

The temperatures were so high that it matched Arizona's Sonoran Desert just north of the Mexican boundary, forecasters told Fox.

Border Patrol Records Far Less Migrant Deaths

According to AZ Central, the Border Patrol had been recording lower migrant death counts than the mapping project.

From January to September 2020, the Border Patrol listed only 43 deaths in Yuma and Tucson while the mapping project found 181 during the same period.

Similarly, Border Patrol only recorded 70 deaths in Arizona while the mapping project had a death count of 144.

Border Patrol keeps its own numbers. According to its parent agency Customs and Border Protection, if another agency finds the remains and fail to report it to Border Patrol, they don't get included in the tally.

Tags Arizona border, migrant deaths